Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Which Religion, Pt 1

As many of you are already aware, I have chosen to abandon my original line of reasoning for "Which Religion" (of which I wrote only the introduction before realizing how esoteric such a series would be) and to take up a different train of evidence. I believe firmly that this will be a much more effective series of blog posts than my original plan. Please forgive me for changing direction.

To begin with, we must refute the claim that two religions may be simultaneously true. This position, espoused by many would-be intellectuals, is absurd at best. If I ask you which color of ice cream is correct, you would be fair in proclaiming me a lunatic and would be free to say "That is up to the individual.". If I ask you what the correct answer to 2+2 is, you would be the lunatic for claiming it is up for debate. Religion is not ice cream - it is not up to interpretation. Either Jesus was alive three days after He died, or He was not. Either Joseph Smith received golden tablets from an angel, or he did not. Either those who attacked the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001 are reaping eternal life or not. All religions make objective claims about truth which must be accepted or denied. They cannot and must not be explained away. It is therefore through objective fact that we must test the claims of religions. If the claims of the Bible are true, the claims of the Buddha, Muhammad and Richard Dawkins are all necessarily false. We then deny agnosticism as well. If the claims of the Bible can be shown to be true, we must accept that God is knowable and that to claim He is not is no more intellectually justified than claiming the reality of Abraham Lincoln is unknowable. With that taken care of, we must analyze the claims of Christianity. If the Bible teaches truths exclusive of other religions, Christianity is exclusively true. If not, Christianity is unjustified. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:14 "and if Christ is not raised, then our preaching is in vain, your faith also is in vain."Join me as we put this to the test. See if the clams of Christianity are true or not, but no longer be a sycophant, claiming truth is either relative or unknowable. To do such is to commit an intolerable act of dishonesty.